Notes for trust officers, private bankers and others concerned with estate and trust planning, from a Merrill Anderson Senior Editor and his retired mentor.

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Tax Reform – The Impossible Dream?

To dream the impossible dreamTo fight the unbeatable foeTo bear with unbearable sorrowTo run where the brave dare not go

* * *

This is my quest, to follow that star,No matter how hopeless, no matter how far. . . .

– Joe Darion, "The Impossible Dream (The Quest)"

Those in the know say the chances of meaningful tax reform this year are none to negative. Worst case: a tax bill that leaves the complexities and lowers the tax rate for regular income that's filtered through Limited Liability Companies and other "pass throughs." (The president is reported to have hundreds of LLC's.)

Yet the need to prune and simplify the Internal Revenue Code persists. Even if meaningful tax reform remains a dream, it's worth pursuing.

Start by joining me in reading T. R. Reid's A Fine Mess.The Washington Post reporter explores how other countries handle taxation. Sometimes they goof; more often they manage to separate taxpayers from their money in simpler, friendlier fashion than we do.

3 comments:

Walk around our downtown and you'll notice two or three signs advertising psychic readings in second-floor windows. I have it on their good authority that within three years the Greatest Depression Ever will begin. New blood in Congress will commence the job of rebuilding the country, and they'll give us a sensible tax code before the shattered shards of the billionaire corporate elite can regroup. (Hey, I called it The Impossible Dream.)